No pullout deal yet, Rice says

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, after meeting here with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Thursday, downplayed expectations that the signing of a U.S.-Iraq security agreement is imminent.

"We'll have agreement when we have agreement," Rice told reporters, addressing speculation that a deal was near.

Rice and Maliki huddled for 2 1/2 hours, trying to iron out remaining differences in the pact, which would govern the presence of U.S. forces in Iraq after their UN mandate expires in December.

U.S. and Iraqi negotiators have finished what has been billed as a final draft, including a conditional time frame for U.S. forces to withdraw from cities in June 2009 and for combat troops to leave the country two years later, according to Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari. However, Rice and Maliki were not able to bridge differences on the text in their meeting.

"They tried to resolve some issues. They tried to find some compromise formula to some points," said an aide to the prime minister. "It's too early to say they reached an agreement on all issues."

The aide said that the differences are minor and that they hoped to close the deal before the end of the year.

Zebari told the Los Angeles Times that the draft would be reviewed by the prime minister and other top Iraqi leaders either Friday night or during the weekend.

The foreign minister struck a note of caution.

"We've been through this before, but we've never been this close," he said, acknowledging that previous drafts had been touted as complete, only for one side or another to find fault.

If senior Iraqi leaders endorse the deal, it would go before Iraq's political council for national security then to parliament for a vote, Zebari said. In the past, items endorsed by Iraq's senior leaders, including an oil law, have never been voted on in parliament or have been delayed for months.

A senior member of Maliki's ruling coalition, Shiite lawmaker Sheik Jaladdin Saghrir, said the sides had still not agreed on issues, including the target date for U.S. troop withdrawals.

"I believe they are struggling," he said. "It is thorny, but there is a little progress."

Saghrir said the Americans wanted their forces to stay one year more than the Iraqis wanted. Maliki has favored that U.S. troops leave by the end of 2010.

The two sides are also debating whether non-combat units would stay in Iraq after the withdrawal date, according to Saghrir. The Americans believe Iraq will need U.S. military advisers, air support and special forces even after most U.S. troops leave.

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Changing times

Changes in the Bush administration's statements over the past 16 months on a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq:

April 3, 2007: "I think setting an artificial timetable for withdrawal is a significant mistake. It is -- it sends mixed signals and bad signals to the region and to the Iraqi citizens. Listen, the Iraqis are wondering whether or not we're going to stay to help." -- President George W. Bush

April 27, 2007: "And if the Congress wants to test my will as to whether or not I'll accept the timetable for withdrawal, I won't accept one. I just don't think it's in the interest of our troops." -- Bush

July 15, 2008: "There's a temptation to let the politics at home get in the way with the considered judgment of the commanders. That's why I strongly rejected an artificial timetable of withdrawal." -- Bush

July 18, 2008: "In the area of security cooperation, the president and the prime minister agreed that improving conditions should allow for the agreements now under negotiation to include a general time horizon for meeting aspirational goals." -- White House statement that first raised the possibility of timelines

Aug. 21, 2008: "Well, we have always said that the roles, missions and size of the American forces here, the coalition forces, was based on the conditions on the ground and what is needed. We have agreed that some goals, some aspirational timetables for how that might unfold are well worth having in -- in such an agreement. ... The reason we are where we are going, talking about this kind of agreement, is that the surge worked." -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in Baghdad